Swaggy P is going to either make things really exciting, or his antics will make Kobe’s head explode. Either way it will be must-see TV. By Tubofgaming via Wikimedia Commons

He started by appending his initial comment with “just playin’.” But as Swaggy P’s conversation with Jim Rome a few weeks ago continued, it became clear that a large part of Swaggy P believes it. In many NBA cities, an attitude like Swaggy P’s would not work for a player like him. In his hometown, in the middle of Tinseltown, it plays amazingly.

Rome, who is a Southern California native, understands what I’ve been saying about the Lakers for the past few years. In Los Angeles, you can’t just be good. Whether you’re a singer, actor, or athlete in this town, being relevant in Hollywood is probably more important than being good.

The Buss family knows they aren’t going to be good, so the least they can do is make it fun to come watch every night. Nick Young will almost guarantee that. He is fearless to a fault and we haven’t seen as much of his on-court interaction with Kobe Bryant as I was hoping for at the beginning of last year. Watching their interaction alone will keep me tuned-in, even when games get out of hand.

Don’t get me wrong — the Lakers will be bad. They might be .500 if everything falls into place. If it doesn’t, they might not be much better than they were this year.

At least they won’t be ridiculously boring though.

Rooting for a losing team is informing. It helps a fan stay grounded and take pleasure in the little parts of athletic competition. It also winning — when it comes around again — much more fun and satisfying. The Lakers’ last five titles would not have been as sweet without the mid-90’s mediocrity. Those mid-90’s teams were fun though. Rooting for Pig Miller was never a winning proposition, but it was entertaining.

Nick Young is entertaining — about that there is no question in my mind. Whether he can be good on a very good team is still a question I ask. For the next few years, in a Lakerland made gloomy by the dark clouds of Kobe’s contract and aging, Swaggy’s ability to be good on a good team may be a moot point.

So I’ll say it again. In this city, where entertainment is the main currency, the Lakers re-signing Swaggy P just makes sense.

Slim Jefferson makes good music. He also has some really good sports takes. On Monday, his take on rooting for your hometown team was, I thought, right-on. Growing-up, I never understood people who lived in California and rooted for the Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Braves, or Dallas Cowboys.

This phenomenon has always bugged me, but I’ve never really been able to put it into words. This morning, in a Facebook post, Slim Jeff described the importance of rooting for your hometown team like I’ve never been able to:

Thanx to Michael Jordan (& the historic marketing push behind his airness) basketball fans are confused. People just adopt a favorite player & totally disregard where they’re from. I think there’s something noble about being proud of where you’re from, wherever that may be. For me it’s ‪#‎Lakers‬ or nothing. ‪#‎Dodgers‬ or nothing. ‪#‎Raiders‬ (LA team when I was a kid). & Although I’m not an avid hockey fan…‪#‎Kings‬ or nothing.

Always odd to me when people root for teams & have zero connection to that city. It should always be team > player. LA is in my blood. The smog, traffic, gang culture, weather, etc. It’s a sensory feeling. Sports is more than sports. These teams mean a lot to the people that watch them, especially the people that grow up with less. They bring cities together that are otherwise separated by class & race. What if LeBron came to the Lakers? Are all Laker-hater LeBron fans suddenly going to root for the Lakers? The sad part is yes, yes they will. & that’s that shit I don’t like. I grew up in South Central, I’m far from a street goon, thug, gangster, or any of that, but the one thing street homies teach you is that loyalty is more precious than gold. In LA we say “off tops” which translates as “you already know.” Some people live through the TV. I live in real life on these LA streets. Moral of the story is don’t be a buster ass perp ass mark. If you’ve been a Clipper fan since day 1 I salute you tho…all 4 of you. ‪#‎Lakergang‬

Well-put, Slim. Well-put.

Much has been made recently about the Clippers decision to cover up the Lakers championship banners and retired jerseys during Clipper home games and I don’t understand why. When the Clippers have a home game they deserve to be able to make it their own arena and just because they share the stadium with the Lakers doesn’t mean that they need to keep Laker stuff all around.

Covering up the purple and gold is a ploy by an organization that finally is looking to step out from under the huge shadow of their big brother. The Clippers may have covered the banners up but everyone still knows what is behind the cover. As a NBA fan, I wish the Clippers luck this season as they try and become a powerhouse NBA team.

Staples Center is home to both the Clippers and Lakers but is more known because of the purple and gold. By Prayitno from Los Angeles, USA, via Wikimedia Commons

I find it extremely comical that now that the Clippers are relevant, the “fans” have started to come out of their shell and support the team. Before the “basketball reasons” incident from a few years ago, you could walk down the street in Los Angeles and not see a single Clippers anything, no billboards, no merchandise being worn, nothing. Although I will admit that the Clippers have become the most exciting team in Los Angeles, they will never be the city’s favorite. Since the Lakers moved to LA, they have built such a strong fan base that their dominance will never be broken — no matter how good the Clippers become. Even though the Clippers are now a title contender, based off their history they are still a borderline NBA franchise until they prove otherwise. One division title in the 43 years the organization has been around is not a great track record. Many people would disagree with my take on who runs Los Angeles, but until they win anything, I stand by my statement. If they do end up winning anything I will be the first to take it back.

After winning a team-record 56 games last season, the Clippers seemed to finally be able to break through and make a run at an NBA title but ended up being bounced in the first round and ended up having only two more playoff wins than a depleted Lakers team without Kobe Bryant. People might look at that statistic as irrelevant but to me that says a lot about the two teams that share Staples.

This season looks to be different with the addition of Doc Rivers and some new players and time will tell. When the Lakers and Clippers are talked about, many people use the words “bragging rights” pertaining to the regular season wins. For me though, the Clippers can have all the regular season wins against the Lakers they want because at the end of the day championships are what matter most. Last time I checked the tally was 16-0 in favor of the purple and gold. If the Clippers ever want to be associated with the Lakers as a great franchise, they will have to do more than cover up the Laker championship banners in the building and start adding some of their own. Fans and analysts can talk all they want about Los Angeles being a Clipper town now and they aren’t wrong about them being the better team, but Los Angeles is and always will be a Laker town.

By Daniel Lobo (Staples Center Uploaded by JoeJohnson2) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Last season, the Lakers finished ahead of the Clippers in the standings and even lasted longer than them in the playoffs.. The Lakers lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 5 games while the Clippers were swept out of the second round by the San Antonio Spurs.

This season, the Clippers have started hot, sporting one of the best records in the Western Conference, while the Lakers look like the bottom-dweller of the two, despite trading for and signing all stars Dwight Howard and Steve Nash in the offseason. This has caused the media to raise the question of Los Angeles being a Clipper town now. I am sick of hearing this.

The answer to that question is one of the simplest to answer, it’s all in the proof, something the Lakers have a lot of. When you walk into Staples Center, what do you see? You see statues all over the outside of the arena, statues of former Lakers players and purple and gold banners everywhere.

Here is a look at the history of the two franchises that play in the Staples Center:

Los Angeles Lakers:

17 NBA Championships

32 Conference Titles

23 Division Titles

8 Retired Numbers

24 Hall-of-Famers

Los Angeles Clippers:

0 NBA Championships

0 Conference Titles

0 Division Titles

0 Retired Numbers

3 Hall-of-Famers

Los Angeles Sparks:

2 WNBA Championships

3 Conference Championships

2 Retired Numbers

Los Angeles Kings:

1 Stanley Cup

2 Conference Championships

1 Division Championship

5 Retired Numbers

15 Hall-of-Famers

The numbers speak for themselves, and yes, the Sparks have more titles and retired numbers than the Clippers. Taking nothing away from the Sparks, because they are a great organization and I love watching their games, but the Clippers have been the joke of Los Angeles since they were moved there from San Diego in 1984.

Until the Clippers have close to as many NBA titles, conference titles, division titles, and hall-of-famers, they have no right to be even mentioned in the same sentence as the Lakers. If the Clippers were to accomplish something close to what the Lakers have, then they would be eligible to be in the conversation. The Clippers haven’t even won their division. Ever. Not once.

All signs point to them finally breaking through this season and winning their first division title, and I give them praise for the great season so far, but talk shouldn’t surface about whether the Clippers have taken the Lakers place as “LA’s” favorite team.

Many people say that Lakers fans are arrogant or “bandwagoners,” but where were all these Clipper fans before, that now have decided to come out of their shell and support their team when the Clippers were the bottom feeders of the NBA for so long?

Los Angeles is still and always will be a Laker town, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

When a list is made of all-time great players, placement of Pippen’s name will vary more than any other player. He won six championships, was a seven-time all star, a ten-time all defensive player, a member of the Dream Team, and was a Top-50 player of all-time.

He also won all his championships alongside Number 23 and with Phil on the bench.

In his post-Bulls and post-Jordan days, Pippen did have success. His Trail Blazers gave him his best chance at a title in 2000, but the Shaq-led Lakers were on their way to a title via an alley-oop from Kobe.

Following his first three championships, all of which came next to Shaq, Kobe critics called him the “next Pippen.” Nobody out-shined Shaq on the Lakers, and naysayers said Kobe couldn’t win a championship as the biggest star on his team. They said Kobe wasn’t a good teammate and couldn’t lead despite his remarkable talent.

For a few years in the middle of the last decade, the criticisms of Kobe seemed legit. It seemed like he might be the next Pippen — a star who never was able to do it without a brighter star. A “Robin.”

Late in Pippen’s career, as his skills declined, his place was as a mentor for a young Portland team that became known as the “Jail Blazers.”

For Kobe, it was the opposite. While his skills and mentality are clearly better than Pippen’s ever were, Kobe also proved over the past few years that he can be “the man” on a championship team. Where Pippen couldn’t rise above the chaos, Kobe willed his way to dominance.

The Pippen-Kobe comparison, or “experiment,” isn’t a great one to begin with. Kobe’s organization has made great personnel decisions while the Jail Blazers have struggled through the past decade despite some decent talent.

While Kobe put the Pippen comparisons to rest, the point is this: anytime a player is seen as “needing” other players to win and not being able to win “all by themselves,” their image is tarnished in the public eye. Writers and pundits talk about players who are dominant personalities on the court, and that is truly where players like Jordan, Kobe, and Shaq separate themselves from players like Scottie Pippen.

With players like Kobe to compare to, it’s clear what Pippen was and what he wasn’t. He was a great defender. He was an amazing second-option offensively to a player who might have been the greatest ever. He was a small-college draft pick who made it big in the NBA, but who never seemed to have the personality to change teammates’ behavior—it was always Jordan who did that on the Bulls, and Pippen couldn’t change the crash-course the Blazers were on before that plane crashed into the mountain.

Pippen was physical grace embodied. Kobe is raw drive personified.  Pippen was a key puzzle piece on six championship teams. Kobe has grown and changed his game to win five titles. Pippen was a seven-time all-star and eight-time All Defensive First-Team selection. Kobe has been to 13 All-Star Games and is a ten-time All Defensive First-Team selection.

Really though, all you need to know about where Scottie Pippen will go down in history in relation to other players is this: when it’s all said and done, Scottie Pippen will have a bust placed somewhere in the United Center. Kobe will have a full statue outside of Staples Center next to Magic Johnson, Chick Hearn, Wayne Gretzky, and Oscar De La Hoya. Enough said.